Railpen's stewardship report highlights action to strengthen member outcomes and market standards

Railpen, manager of the £34bn railways pension scheme in the UK, has published its 2025 Stewardship Report.

The report outlines how Railpen is using active stewardship to protect and enhance long-term member outcomes. Throughout 2025, Railpen accelerated financially material efforts to drive improvements at company and market level across its systemic priorities:

1. Climate and Nature

2. Responsible Technology

3. Sustainable Financial Markets

4. Worth of the Workforce.

Caroline Escott, Head of Investment Stewardship and Co-Head of Sustainable Ownership at Railpen, says: "Good stewardship is a key part of ensuring good financial outcomes for our members. When pension funds like Railpen use our scale and expertise to demand better governance standards, we strengthen the companies we invest in, stabilise financial markets, and support long-term economic growth. In 2025, we've doubled down on this commitment and will go further to advocate for the issues that matter to members’ outcomes. The evidence is clear; stewardship drives sustainable value creation.”

The report details how Railpen integrates financially material governance and sustainability considerations into investment decisions, assesses systemic risks, engages with portfolio companies, participates in industry collaborations, and exercises voting rights to support members' futures.

2025 report highlights include:

Launching the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign 

In response to efforts in several jurisdictions to weaken corporate governance standards, Railpen launched and now chairs the multi-trillion-pound Governance for Growth Investor Campaign (GGIC). The initiative brings together major UK pension schemes and multi-trillion pound investor organisations to demonstrate that good governance supports corporate performance, investment confidence and long-term value creation. The campaign’s membership continues to grow and it has already secured backing from leading organisations including the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Pensions UK.

Launching a refreshed systems stewardship strategy

Railpen has reassessed its longstanding systems stewardship approach and, for the first time, published structured engagement plans across four priority areas: Climate and Nature, Responsible Technology, Sustainable Financial Markets, and Worth of the Workforce. Each plan sets out clear objectives, priority sectors and jurisdictions, and measurable outcomes designed to strengthen long-term financial outcomes for members.

Publishing an AI governance framework for investors 

In partnership with Chronos Sustainability, Railpen published a report setting out investor expectations for how companies should govern and manage artificial intelligence, to help guide other investors with their own approaches. The framework informs Railpen’s assessment of corporate AI practices and engagement with portfolio companies, reflecting the growing importance of AI-related risks and opportunities to long-term value creation.

Advancing work on unequal voting rights

As chair and co-founder of the Investor Coalition for Equal Votes (ICEV), Railpen continued its work to challenge dual-class share structures. During 2025, the coalition secured engagement with major investment banks and expanded its focus to venture capital and private equity firms, highlighting the governance risks associated with unequal voting rights ahead of IPOs.

Strengthening workforce disclosure standards

Building on previous work, Railpen and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) commissioned updated research into FTSE 350 workforce disclosures. Working alongside the High Pay Centre, Railpen developed recommendations for policymakers, investors and companies aimed at improving transparency on workforce issues, including how businesses are managing AI-related workplace change.

Updating Railpen’s Global Voting Policy

Railpen’s 2026 Global Voting Policy, published in December 2025, introduced new expectations for companies whose capital markets advocacy may undermine shareholder interests or long-term value creation. The updated policy also strengthened guidance on AI governance and shareholder rights.

The report also includes case studies demonstrating Railpen’s direct engagement with portfolio companies on material sustainability and governance issues during 2025. These examples highlight Railpen’s use of a broad range of stewardship tools, including company engagement, collaborative initiatives, AGM interventions and voting activity.

Caroline added: “As long-term investors, we've always believed that stewardship on material governance issues is core to our fiduciary duty. In 2025, we saw efforts to dilute governance standards worldwide. That's why we're advocating for the governance standards that support economic resilience and help secure our members' futures."